Today Marks 500 Days of Running...
At Least One Mile...
Every Single Day...
Rain, Snow, or Shine...
Usually Barefoot.
You did Not Misread that...
At "Least" One Mile a Day, Usually Barefoot.
My Furthest Barefoot was a little over 10 Kilometers/6.2 Miles.
This puts me in the Top 5,000 Active Running Streaks in the World.
Now, You may Find that Odd...
And Perhaps in Today's World it Is...
But I actually have a Number of Reasons that I Do This.
Now, Most People Decide to Run for their Health...
And that is Absolutely Fair and Acceptable to Do...
However, I Primarily Run to Improve My Work.
Yes, Even the Decision to Do it Barefoot.
But What Does Running have to Do with Work?
Well, it Begins with Energy...
Specifically, Mg-ATP.
Our Bodies Run on the Energy source known as Mg-ATP.
There are a Couple of Ways for Our Bodies to Produce this Energy.
We Primarily will Use Carbohydrates and Fats in the Production of Mg-ATP...
Though, we can also use Protein in Starvation Scenarios if Necessary.
But Not All Energy Creation is Treated Equally.
If Our Bodies want to Create More Cleaner Energy, then We want to Focus on Fats for Fuel...
And If Our Bodies Need to Create Energy More Quickly, but Less Effciently and with More "Exhaust" from the Process, then it Turns to Carbohydrates.
Now, there is a Point where Our Bodies will Transition from "Mostly" Fats for Fuel to "Mostly" Carbohydrates for Fuel.
When Our Bodies "Perceive" that a Task is More Difficult, it will Begin to Transition toward Carbohydrates...
But in Doing So it Creates More Exhaust, which then Requires More Time for the Body to Recover From, and You are Not Able to Maintain this for Long.
What this Means is that "If" You want to Accomplish More in Your Life...
You Need to "Increase" the Point of Transition.
By Increasing that Transition Point...
It Means that Your Body can Handle and Do More before that Transition Occurs.
Because Carbohydrate Energy Use is Not Sustainable...
You are Limited by How Far You Can Go on Fat Utilization Alone.
This Means that We Need to Train Our Mitochondria, where Energy (Mg-ATP) is Created, to become Better and Faster at Using Fats.
One of the Easiest Ways to Accomplish This?
Running.
Specifically, Training Slower and Longer Distances.
Over Time, I have Worked on Training My Mitochondria to Primarily Use Fats as Fuel, which Allows Me to Accomplish More in My Work...
Especially when We Dive into Flow States, where We Use a Higher Level of Energy to Fuel Our Performance.
Which Brings me into Another Point of Why I Run...
Flow States.
When I Run, I will Find a Flow State...
And there is a Fun Rule with Flow States...
The More Often You Find Flow States...
The Easier it Becomes to Find More Flow States in Your Life.
Now, You'll "Never" be in "Perpetual" Flow States...
And Anyone who says otherwise has Clearly Never Looked into the Research on Flow States, and is likely Referring to Others States of Being such as "Bliss"...
But You "Can" Find Mulitiple Flow States throughout Your Day...
And Finding them in Different Ways Helps Your Body "Internalize" what is Known as the "Flow Cycle".
The More Often You Go Through the Flow Cycle...
The Easier it Becomes to Go Through the Flow Cycle.
It is like a Boulder where, after Gaining Momentum, it is Easier to Continue to Keep the Momentum Going.
Because I Find Flow States in My Running...
I am Better Able to Find Flow States in My Work.
It is what I Call a "Virtuous Cycle" that Builds on Itself.
But there is More to Why I Run...
Especially when it Comes to the Barefoot in Particular.
Why Run Barefoot?
Well, there are Two Reasons in Particular.
The First has to Do with Physiological Structure.
Remember This...
All Stress Adds.
No Matter where Stress Comes From, it Adds Together, and We can Only Handle So Many "Simultaneous" Stressors...
This is what is Known as Our "Stress Threshold".
When We have Too Many Simultaneous Stressors, We Move into Dis-Stress.
In Dis-Stress, We Become Less Effective at "Everything"...
Especially Our Work.
Now, it May Seem Odd, but Our Body Structure "Can" become a Stressor.
When We become Used to Standing and Sitting in Unnatural Ways...
It Creates Physiological Stressors on the Body...
Which Adds to Our Total Stressors.
For Many People...
Their are "Constantly" in Poor Physiological Structure which Causes Constant Stress on their Bodies...
And then they Try to Use Outside "Support" to Fix It...
But this Ends Up having the Opposite Effect.
Think of it like this...
If Your Arm is Being "Supported" by a Cast...
What Happens?
Well, Your Muscles Become Weaker Over Time.
Why?
The "Support" makes it so that Your Muscles Do Not Need to Work.
The Same is True with Most "Ergonomic" Furniture and Most Footwear as Well.
These "Supports" are Actually Making Our Bodies Weaker...
Which Weakens Our Bodily Structure...
Which Causes More Baseline Stressors.
So, I Run Barefoot to Strengthen My Feet...
Which Improves My Posture...
Which Lessens Baseline Stressors.
But there is also the Second Reason I Run Barefoot...
And it has to Do with the Nervous System.
Throughout Our Bodies, We have Nerve Endings.
These Nerve Endings Send Signals throughout the Body to Provide Information about Whether We are Safe, What Our Surroundings are Like, and Provides a "Map" of Where We are in Space.
There are Three Areas with the Highest Levels of Nerve Endings...
Our Mouths...
Our Hands...
And Our Feet.
Now, Most People have their Feet in Shoes which "Weaken" the Signals that Go to the Nerves in Our Feet.
This Causes a Few Problems.
First, Our Bodies "Want" those Signals, and will "Push" to Get those Signals.
How Does that Play Out?
By Essentially "Stomping" in order to Create "More" of a Signal.
But the Problem with Stomping is that Over Time, this can Cause Significan Damage to Our Joints...
And therefore "Adds" More Stressors on the Body.
With this...
Over Time Our Nerve Endings can Become Weaker as Well.
What Happens when these Weak Nerve Endings "Suddenly" Get Stimulation?
Shock.
What Most People Register as "Pain" when they Walk without Shoes is Actually Not a "Physical" Sensation, but rather a Nerve Ending Overload which is Not Causing Any "Physical" Harm...
But It "Does" Activate the Nervous System, which then Treats the Overstimulation as a "Threat"...
Sending Us into a Sympathetic State, otherwise known as "Fight-or-Flight".
The More Frequently this Happens, the More Difficult it Becomes to Calm the Body Down, and the Less Able we are to Do Higher Level Thinking.
So, I Run Barefoot to Cause Stimulation in the Nerve Endings in My Feet...
Which Strengthens those Connections...
While also Creating a Calming Sensation in the Nervous System...
Which Frees My Brain and Bodily Resources to Perform Higher-Level Thinking More Frequently.
This Brings me to the Final Reason that I Continue to Run Daily for My Work...
It Makes Me An Exemplar Of My Work.
A Large Portion of my Work is Understanding and Uncovering How Psychophysiology Impacts Our Ability to Work...
And With This...
Show What Normal Humans are Capable Of.
So Many People Limit Themselves...
Thinking that One Thing or Another is Out of their Reach.
But these are Lies that have Been Perpetuated by a Broken Society.
Truly, We as a Society Know "Far Less" About what We are Capable than Most Realize.
When You Look at Our Psychophysiology...
Running Daily "Should" Be Easily Possible for Anyone.
Even Running Barefoot Daily Should be within the "Human Norm".
Now, Many People have been "Deconditioned" Over their Lifetimes, and therefore May Require a "Rebuild" Period...
But it is Within Your Reach if You Do Just a "Little" Bit of Work.
Start Today, and Begin to Take Hold of Your Potential.
I would also be Remiss if I did Not Mention the Different Partners and Affiliates that I have which have Contributed to My Atheletic Success.
If You are Looking for Amazing Products to Help You on Your Journey...
Here are a Few that I Use and Recommend...
For Gear...
If You are a Believer in Christ like me, you should also look at UDX Athletic Wear.
My friends at The Feed provide some great Nutrition for Long Runs, like the Spartan Ultra (50 Kilometers/31 Miles Race with 60+ Obstacles) that I am Preparing to Do this Weekend - Specifically their Partnership with Untapped Energy Gels.
If You're Looking for Devices to Help You Track and Plan Your Runs, then I use Two...
WHOOP is My Primary Device, and I am a Diamond Level Athlete on their Platform.
Then, if You are Looking to Maximize Your Supplements with Clean and Certified Products, these are the Ones I Trust:
I utilize these for the Root Cause Protocol, which is Designed to Maximize Energy Production in the Body, which is something that I am also a Certified Consultant In.
Oh, and if You Need Shoes for Your Runs, which Many People "Do" Need Some Protection based on their Environments or Specific Events that Require Shoes...
I am a Gigantic Fan of the Scrambler Line because they are made in partnership with Michelin Tire-Inspired Outsoles, which provide the Perfect Grip for my OCR Races.
These are the Primary Products that I use, and they make a Gigantic Difference.
I Would Not be able to sideline as a Semi-Professional Athlete without these Incredible Partners and Affiliates who have Helped Elevate my Fitness.
Now I am Off to Run...
Here's to Another 500!
Let's Go!
Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?
Tired of Broken Algorithms and AI Slop?
Excited to Dive Deeper into Psychophysiological Mastery?
Want to Change The World?